THE MENTAL HEALTH OF BLACK WOMEN & GIRLS 

Along with resisting the daily triggers of systemic racism, police brutality, colorism, discrimination, misogynoir, and micro-aggressions that make living in America and retaining one's sanity so difficult, young Black girls and women are plagued with stereotypes that many feel they have to carry, day in and day out. This reality leaves no room for healing and relief. I’ve often felt that America treats Black women and girls as if we were exotic caged animals. We are expected to do what others cannot for scraps in return. We are expected to be exotic but not too different in a way that intimidates others. We are expected to do what we’re told and suffer abuse in silence, and of course, be strong through it all. Often the struggle against everyone’s expectations of us or the struggle against the stereotypes of being too strong, too submissive, too sexual, or too angry, as a black woman, is a suppressed and internal one: a struggle to face alone. It is a struggle that breaks us down and suffocates us from the inside. But, it does not have to be this way. The way to really fight and win is to heal. And the way to heal is to talk, to reach out to each other, to support, to encourage, and to educate one another. Talking about and taking care of our mental health in the home, workplace, and in our relationships should be habitual not a “touchy topic” or a cliché, and luckily, there is a way to get there.